Auntie edged aside by social networking upstart

Facebook eased ahead of the BBC leviathan – which includes the popular iPlayer – to become the fifth most popular destination in Britain.

Google and its subsidiary sites like YouTube, GMail, GCalendar and Google Docs remains firmly rooted at the head at the league, with Microsoft's sites, including the MSN portal, Hotmail and Live Search in second place, some way above Yahoo's portfolio in third place.

36 million UK users

Search giant Google has a unique audience of almost 36 million, with Microsoft some 4.2 million behind that and Yahoo lagging behind with nearly 29 million.

Auction site eBay is the fourth biggest site with 19.7 million and Facebook moved past the BBC with 18.4 million compared to the broadcasting giant's 18.1 million.